On the dangers of thinking you are indispensible: English professors’ edition
Posted: August 28, 2013 Filed under: Digital Humanities, Digital pedagogy, General, Projects and Societies, Research, Teaching, Unessay | Tags: english studies, grammar, status, Unessay, universities 3 Comments »Apparently in 1917 people had a different view of the centrality of English professors…
When we consider our educational position, we teachers of English composition are in a fair way to become conceited. In view of certain featuresof our daily experiencethe dangerof becoming conceited may not seem imminent. But the outstanding feature of our position among pedagogues surely spells danger in that very direction. The practically universal assumption that our work is educationally indispensable is truly ominous (William Hawley Davis. 1917. “The Teaching of English Composition: Its Present Status.” The English Journal 6 (5) (May 1): 285–294. doi:10.2307/801590).
As Inge would point out, this is an early example of the humanist disease “We are popular, people are giving us resources. Well, let’s examine that: is popularity really important? Have we earned these resources, really? Perhaps we have things too easy.
The defining difference between the Humanities and Natural Sciences, in my opinion, has nothing to do with methodology and everything to do with not looking gift horses in the mouth–and realising that if somebody is offering you a gift horse, it is a very good time to ask for a carriage and harness as well.